MS AWARENESS: Porterdale Police honor Lt. Cortney Morrison during Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month

Those who know Cortney Morrison know she loves law enforcement.

A career police officer, Morrison spent nearly two decades at the Newton County Sheriff’s Office. She presently works at the Porterdale Police Department, where she’s been for just under a year.

Morrison describes herself as someone who eats, sleeps and breathes law enforcement.

“When I tell you I love law enforcement, just for the sheer nature of it being law enforcement, I love helping people,” Morrison said. “And that sounds so cliché, but that’s so true. I love interacting with people. I love seeing the different walks of life and the diversity that’s in every community. I love learning about cultures, how people live.”

Morrison’s career outlook unexpectedly changed in late 2019 when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). 

MS is a chronic disease that impacts one’s central nervous system. It can present itself through a variety of symptoms, but primarily impacts vision and motor control. Many patients experience dizziness, numbness in their limbs and can have trouble walking and standing.

For Morrison, the first sign that something might be amiss was issues with her vision.

“I developed optic neuritis, which is a lot of how some people get diagnosed with MS,” Morrison said. “And I had gone to my eye doctor, and she’s like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on with you.’ She’s like, ‘This isn’t like, an eye thing…this is a neurological thing. You need to go get an MRI.’ And I’m like, ‘You’re crazy. I don’t need an MRI for an eye problem.’”

Nonetheless, Morrison underwent the MRI, which showed doctors what was going on under the surface: MS.

“They call it the snowflake disease too, because there is no two [people] that have the exact same symptoms,” Morrison said.

Since her diagnosis, Morrison’s symptoms have primarily manifested as her struggling with balance and coordination, temperature regulation and fighting waves of bodily fatigue. At times, Morrison said, she also can struggle to recall the right word to say in a conversation.

Though she had to put her health first, over time, Morrison has not let this life-altering diagnosis hold her back from serving and protecting. Supporting her through this unprecedented time has been her husband, Brent, a fellow police officer.

In March 2022, Morrison left the sheriff’s office. Some 15 months after her MS diagnosis, Morrison had realized the toll that her work was taking on her body.

“There was only a few years there that I was able to kind of maintain what I was doing there, because it was so much,” Morrison said. “And I didn’t know or realize how much I was…I was pushing my body, but I didn’t realize what I was doing. And I was trying to accommodate for the MS before I even knew that I had it.”

Stepping aside from work wasn’t a break—it was a refocus. Health became the forefront of Morrison’s life, as she worked with her neurologist at the Shepherd Center, undergoing physical therapy and working on her MS.

In the summer of 2025, when she was ready for law enforcement work to reenter her life, Morrison said Porterdale Police Chief Jason Cripps was more than welcoming. 

“[Cripps was] like, ‘Well, you can just do what you want to do, when you want to do it, how you want to do it,’” Morrison said. “And I said, ‘Really?’ So I got back in law enforcement through Porterdale.”

Morrison and her husband then joined the Porterdale Police Department. As a reserve officer, Morrison doesn’t do patrol work the way a typical officer does, but she has assisted the department in other unique and meaningful ways.

Towards the end of her time with the Newton County Sheriff’s Office, Morrison was overseeing the School Resource Officer Unit. She had also worked in public information, certification and accreditation.

Morrison took the specific skill set she’d acquired over the years with Newton County to Porterdale, leading the department to become one of eight Georgia cities with an Excellence in Policing certification. 

“[Morrison] has still fought through that and has assisted us in getting a state certification through GACP [the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police],” Cripps said. “She helped us rewrite our policy, and she’s just…a fighter.”

Though Morrison admits she had struggled with this diagnosis at times—as anyone would—she’s working steadily towards adapting to her new life, opening up about MS and supporting increased awareness of the disease. With her husband by her side, supporting her every step of the way and truly understanding Morrison’s love of policework, she has pushed on and persevered each day.

“When the chief afforded me this opportunity, and he was so open and willing to accept and understand MS, that just made me want to be there even more and help kind of grow his agency and do the best for the agency and the community of Porterdale,” Morrison said. 

And when Cripps and the department surprised Morrison by hanging a banner outside the office to honor March being MS Awareness Month, she was left floored.

“I had never felt so supported and seen,” Morrison said. “That’s the best word, is ‘seen.’ I felt like they see me. And it was the best thing. I couldn’t quit laughing and smiling.”